Malaysia urged to strengthen child protection amid alarming reports of abuse

THE boy was crying, trying to tell a teacher he had been sexually harassed, when he was told to fill in a form.

Jaz Leen Lim recalled witnessing the exchange. An advocacy and partnership officer with Pocket of Pink, a youth-led organisation promoting sexuality education and children's safety, she brought the account to the National Child Protection Leadership Conference 2026 in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 14.

The pupil had been expected to put events in chronological order, with the details and timing correct. When he asked whether he could complete the form the following day, Lim recalled that he was told it had to be done that day for the report to be valid.

"How do you expect a child that is so traumatised to fill that out?" she asked.

For a gathering guided by the theme "The Best Interests of the Child", the encounter offered an uncomfortable test of what those words meant in practice. The boy had found an adult and begun to speak. He still needed someone to help him through what came next.

October had already brought disturbing reports involving children. A 16-year-old girl was killed at a secondary school in Yong Peng, Johor, on Oct 3. Days later, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission confirmed receiving a complaint about artificial intelligence-generated sexual images and videos allegedly involving students and teachers at a school in Kedah.

The concerns persisted beyond the conference. On Oct 21, a tuition teacher pleaded not guilty to six charges involving alleged sexual offences against three 11-year-old boys in Kuala Lumpur. The reports challenged a familiar assumption: that a child's presence in a school or under an adult's supervision was, by itself, an assurance of safety.

At the International Youth Centre on Oct 14 and 15, the conference and policy lab organised by the Children's Protection Society Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur branch (CPSM-KL) examined what a stronger system of protection required. Its overarching message was "Protecting Children, Strengthening Malaysia's Future: Every Child Safe, Supported and Heard".

The initiative formed part of CPSM's Safe Child, Strong Nation campaign, launched in June this year to build public understanding of child protection and the part everyone had in safeguarding children. Its four pillars were "Protect, Empower, Educate and Report".

The figures gave some measure of the work ahead. CPSM's website highlighted 1,575 cases of physical, sexual and emotional abuse reported to the Social Welfare Department in the final three months of 2025, about 17 cases a day.

Separately, government statistics recorded 9,624 children in need of care and protection in 2024, up 12.7 per cent from the previous year. That broader category extended beyond abuse alone. Neither measure captured experiences that never reached the authorities.

THE PRICE OF TELLING

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Criminologist Dr Haezreena Begum Abdul Hamid had heard how adults explained away the harm they caused.

In prison interviews, some sexual offenders blamed marital difficulties, interference from relatives or temptation. Renewed religious devotion could be offered as proof of change. Acceptance of responsibility for what they had done to a child was harder to find in some of those accounts.

For the Universiti Malaya law lecturer, the problem extended beyond the offender's explanations. Outside prison, families had their own reasons for wanting a disclosure to disappear. A relative faced disgrace. A household risked losing its breadwinner. A child who wanted the abuse to stop could also fear what would happen to everyone at home if the perpetrator was arrested.

Haezreena explained: "So there's a lot of pressure on the child or even on the family to accept what has been done and to move on."

In the situations Haezreena described, reporting the abuse could make the child the target of anger over the family's subsequent difficulties. The person who had been harmed was then expected to consider the offender's good deeds, preserve relationships or forgive.

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The burden had shifted. The adult had caused the harm, but the child risked being blamed for what happened when it became known. Against those pressures, the instruction to speak up could sound dangerously incomplete. Knowing where to report offered little comfort without some assurance of support after the report was made.

Khairy Jamaluddin, campaign ambassador for Safe Child, Strong Nation, recognised a similar instinct in institutions. A complaint could become a threat to a school's good name or the standing of someone powerful, drawing attention away from the child who needed protection.

"No reputation, whether it is an individual, whether it's a leader, whether it's an institution, is more important than the child's safety," he asserted.

Poverty and migrant status could make that imbalance more severe. A child challenging an adult already had less power. The consequences of challenging a respected figure or someone on whom a family depended could make asking for help more frightening still.

THE ADULT ON THE OTHER SIDE

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Lim's account returned the discussion to the moment a child decided whom to trust.

An adult might consider themselves approachable. A child whose trust was already broken had more to weigh: whether the story would become gossip, whether they would be punished and whether the person listening would stand by them when matters became difficult.

Lim explained: "We fear that speaking up will only invite more rumours, gossip or punishment and unsavoury comments."

The reassurance Lim wanted was explicit. Children needed to hear that they were believed and had done the right thing by asking for help. They needed patience while they tried to explain.

"To a frightened child, those words aren't just words. It's like a lifeline for them," she said.

They also needed to know where their information would go. An adult might understand why a disclosure had to be referred to the authorities. Without an explanation, a child could be left imagining who else would find out and what would happen at home or school.

Reporting meant asking someone to enter a process they might never have encountered before. Explaining the next step and how their privacy would be protected gave them something firmer than a general promise that everything would be taken care of.

Haezreena saw a related failure much earlier in the decisions adults made for children. "We make policies for children without children's involvement."

Remembering their own childhoods had not necessarily equipped adults to understand what frightened pupils in today's schools or online. Children's answers could expose problems that an adult's inspection or checklist missed.

The perspectives at the conference included those of Children's Rights Commissioner Dr Farah Nini Dusuki; P.S. The Children founder and Play Therapy Malaysia chief executive Madeleine Yong; Unicef Malaysia child protection specialist Lee Lyn-Ni; and PEMIMPIN executive director Samuel Isaiah.

Their fields brought the discussion into the places where children learnt, sought support and encountered authority.

WHAT BOYS LEARN ABOUT STRENGTH

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For Khairy, a father of three boys, some of the pressures were already familiar at home.

Online, boys encountered versions of masculinity that treated success as an entitlement, rejection as an insult and empathy as weakness. Offering a credible alternative required people who could show that accepting disappointment and considering someone else's feelings were compatible with strength.

That was also a commercial problem. Provocative personalities attracted attention, and attention attracted brands. The choice of whom to reward helped determine which behaviour gained influence.

Technology companies belonged in that conversation, too. Parents were trying to guide children through spaces shaped by decisions and incentives far beyond their households. Khairy said: "You need guardrails and you need them now."

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The digital and welfare perspectives included those of Eneng Faridah of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission and Roziah Osman of the Selangor Social Welfare Department. Protection had to follow children across the settings in which they lived, including the screens through which they formed relationships.

Khairy also called for greater attention to the needs of children who themselves caused harm. A child could have been both an aggressor and a victim. That history did not excuse an offence, but understanding it mattered in determining the appropriate response and support.

Haezreena's concerns extended to what happened after punishment. Imprisonment removed an offender from the community without demonstrating that the thinking behind the abuse had changed. She questioned the adequacy of rehabilitation and the assumption that religious devotion necessarily signalled remorse.

For families seeking justice, another difficulty arose when complaints received no further action. Her call for review and scrutiny addressed the burden then placed on people who had already struggled to report: working out why a case had stalled and how to pursue it.

FROM AWARENESS TO ACTION

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The pillars depended on one another. A child taught to recognise abuse still needed somewhere safe to disclose it. A reporting channel needed adults who could respond appropriately. Prevention required families, schools and services to recognise danger before a crisis forced their attention.

CPSM president Datuk Seri Nazir Ariff placed responsibility across that wider circle: "Child protection cannot rest on the shoulders of one organisation or institution alone. It requires families, schools, communities and relevant authorities to work together to ensure that children are protected from harm and receive the support they need. We must move beyond awareness and strengthen the systems and collective responsibility that help keep children safe."

At the policy lab on Oct 15, participants mapped Malaysia's child protection system, identified gaps and developed recommendations for further consideration. Raja Muda Selangor, Tengku Amir Shah Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah attended as CPSM's royal patron.

An international keynote came from Aarathi Arumugam, chief operating officer of EveryChild.SG, a Singapore-based organisation advocating for children's wellbeing and holistic development.

The initiative was held in collaboration with the Women Economic Forum (WEF), a global platform promoting women's leadership and economic empowerment, and the G100 Global Meet 2026. That gathering brought together members of G100, an international network of women leaders advocating gender equality, alongside the forum in Kuala Lumpur.

For CPSM-KL chairman Tengku Datuk Asra Jehan, the partnerships underscored the importance of placing children's safety on the national agenda.

"Our collaboration with WEF and G100 Global Meet 2026 gives us an important platform to bring child protection into wider conversations on leadership, empowerment and nation-building," she said.

"Through Safe Child, Strong Nation, we want to encourage more people to recognise that protecting children is a shared responsibility. But awareness must lead to action, which is why the Policy Lab is an important next step in identifying gaps and developing practical recommendations to strengthen Malaysia's child protection system."

The encounters described during the conference also offered changes adults could begin making in their own classrooms, services and homes: asking children what frightened them, explaining a referral and following through after a disclosure.

The boy in Lim's account had found the courage to speak. An adult who met that courage with patience and action could help make asking for protection a less frightening experience. That was a beginning within reach.